Monsoons, Mud and Muck

Tortuga Thursday

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Potatoes in the distance

After whining about no moisture this year, other than a little snow in January, I'm sorry I complained. The monsoons were pretty much non-existent our first year, but they've made up for it this second year. Our fields have been ponds and our roads rivers at time. The rain has poured so hard we couldn't see to the end of our property. We need to take the RV in for some repairs but we've had to cancel twice because we can't get it out without fear of getting stuck.

Sunrise

The cloudy, stormy skies do give us great sunrises and sunsets.

So far, the abundance of water has not damaged any of our crops. In fact, the potato rows are bushy. Of course weeds are bushy too. They aren't too bad in the fields since we've kept them pretty much cleared. But around the house, greenhouse and beyond our fences out front they've gone out of control.

We've been harvesting dill weed and various other herbs, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, a few tomatoes, radishes, blackberries, jalapenos, peas, and broccoli. Also, all of our greens from chard to butterhead lettuce have been flourishing for well over a month.

My new favorite way to fix veggies is in the wok on the grill. This wok has holes in it and the veggies get grilled. So good.

Tomato

Frank has a couple of cases of pickles already. Christie has been freezing blackberries and zucchini. Although I complain about harvesting the blackberries because I always get pricked, I do enjoy snacking as I go!